


Assurance

by OutlandishNotion



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Canonical Character Death, Gen, Injury, One Shot, emotions about Barry's coin
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-05
Updated: 2017-06-05
Packaged: 2018-11-09 13:32:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 788
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11105586
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OutlandishNotion/pseuds/OutlandishNotion
Summary: The worst part isn't the constant dying, it's the fact that he's doing it all alone, these days. At least by now he's gotten pretty good at providing some form of comfort to his amnesiac self.





	Assurance

Barry was dying. Not for the first time—by quite a large margin—but he didn’t know that right now.

It was certainly one of his more mundane misfortunes. He’d been hiking around the foothills, searching for the energy trace that had been his objective for years now, according to the voice in his coin. The weather had grown treacherously frigid but Barry’s determination hadn’t; and so he slipped and fell.

It wasn’t even a fatal fall. All it did was break both his legs. If only someone knew where he was, he could’ve easily been rescued before the winter night encroached on him. But Barry was alone, and could do nothing but wait till he started unceremoniously freezing to death.

Sprawled on his back at the bottom of a barren ravine, he stared at the stars slowly blinking into view. Something painful tugged at his chest. It wasn’t yet the onset of hypothermia, or even the fear of dying—in fact, he found himself bafflingly calm, as if this was a well familiar experience. No, what bothered him was a strange, wistful feeling that the stars were further away than he remembered them being.

Then again, this was nothing new. As far as Barry knew, his whole existence was just a mishmash of inexplicable impressions and fractured memories. They were all he’d ever had to go on, besides the instructions in his coin. …His coin! With shivering hands, Barry pulled the unassuming piece of metal out of his pocket. It had hardly made his life any less bizarre, but he still found its weight comforting.

After its initial introduction, the coin had occasionally played automated messages relevant to the task at hand. It had nothing to say about Barry’s current predicament, but in the past months he’d figured out how to skip around the recording. He tinkered with the coin for a moment and found what he needed.

“—can’t tell you the details, but just remember—you have to remember—that no matter how it feels like... you’re not alone, Barry.”

Barry found himself clutching the coin tight as he listened to his own voice echo faintly around the rocks and the ice. It was undoubtedly his voice in there, although far more confident and possessing some secret knowledge. He trusted it. He had to trust it.

“You may have forgotten them,” the Other Barry continued, ”and they may have forgotten you, but you have friends—a family. You love them. You love _her_. They’re the reason you’re doing this. You’ve got to keep going.”

For a moment, Barry thought he might have found the strenght to get up. As he tried, however, his legs gave out and he faceplanted into the snow. He lay there cursing as Other Barry’s recording deteriorated into a mumble.

“Yep, that’s pretty much what I would’ve needed to hear last time around. Sure hope that works… still can’t believe I’ve got to give a pep talk to myself. Literally the worst one of us at this whole talking thing…” The coin fell quiet, replaced by the wails of a heightening wind. Barry fiddled with it for a while (his fingers had really gone numb, now) and Other Barry’s speech started again.

“—no matter how it feels like... you’re not alone—”

Carefully maneuvering his injured legs, Barry curled up in his robes and closed his eyes. He let the loop play over and over until the words started blurring together and the world turned into a haze. He just had to hold on till morning broke, or some miracle happened, or—

There was a sudden heavy sigh from the coin. “Okay, time for my least favorite part. Barry, it looks like you’re dying.”

A tired shiver went down Barry’s spine, but not from the cold this time. He had no memory of hearing this part of the recording before. The automated system must’ve kicked in.

“Judging by your vitals, you’ll be gone soon. Not to worry, though, in your—our—case, that’s not a permanent problem. I just hope I managed to gain some good progress, this time.”

He hadn’t. He hadn’t triangulated the energy trace, whatever or whoever it was; he’d slipped and fallen, instead.

“No, it’s okay.” Other Barry said, and stayed quiet for a while. Barry wondered if he'd had trouble deciding what words to leave his future self with. ”I’ll keep trying,” the voice finally said. “I’ll find them, all of them, one day. And once we’re together, we’ll fix everything.“

Barry hoped so, he really did. He didn’t know how long he’d been searching, or how many times he’d failed already, but he sure as hell knew he’d keep going.

With that thought, Barry Bluejeans died again.


End file.
